A research-ready data set of U.S. home mortgage loan applications, based on data from the federally mandated Home Mortgage Disclosure Act. In 2014, the most recent year for which data is available, there were about 11.7 million loan records reported by 7,062 financial institutions in 2014. These records include applications for home purchase, for home improvement, and for refinancing.
Data generated by HMDA provides information on lending practices. This data set includes multiple files; the primary table is the Loan Application Register (LAR), which contains:
- demographic information about loan applicants, including race, gender and income;
- the purpose of the loan (i.e. home purchase or improvement);
- whether the buyer intends to live in the home; the type of loan (i.e. conventional, FHA insured, etc.);
- the outcome of the loan application (i.e. approved or declined).
- geographical information on applicants, such as Census tract, MA (metropolitan area), state and county, total population and percentage of minority population by Census tract.
Since 2004, the data also includes "spread," showing the difference between Treasury security interest rate and the loans interest rate. Lenders are also given the opportunity to note reasons for denial in three fields, but those are seldom used.
Names, addresses, and other information on lending institutions are stored in additional tables and can be joined to the LAR data.
HMDA requires all banks, savings and loans, savings banks and credit unions with assets of more than $33 million and offices in metropolitan areas to report mortgage applications. This act was enacted by Congress in 1975 and is implemented by the Federal Reserve Boards Regulation C. Banks, savings and loan associations, credit unions, and mortgage and consumer finance companies are required to report HMDA data if they meet legal criteria for coverage.
Provided in collaboration with Investigative Reporters and Editors